kind of technical English problem

[Timo]

(It's not ideal to do this, but...) You know when you turn on your speakers, then switch on your Virus and you get a *thwump!!* from your speakers as you turn the Virus power switch on?

That's one example of a transient (a brief power surge). Actually that happens to me far, far worse with the Virus than any of my other synths, but I digress.

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Example 2:

Highlighted in this pic is what I would call a transient (or an "initial impulse") in a kick drum audio waveform:

http://img278.imageshack.us/img278/3...ansientnn9.png

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An "impulse", on the other hand, would be morelike a controlled event, where a state of change (or load of data) is transmitted/received.